Hiiraan Online
Monday April 16, 2018
Garowe (HOL) - The President of the semi-autonomous regional state, Abdiweli Ali Gaas on Monday called on United Arab Emirates (UAE) to continue to help Somalia in training and military support barely a day Abu Dhabi disbanded its mission in Somalia.
Speaking to media in Bossaso, Gaas said UAE has played a memorable role in Somalia's force rebuilding process.
"UAE is a strategic partner in the fight against terrorism, against Piracy, against illegal fishing, illegal human trafficking in Somalia and particularly Puntland. The UAE has trained and equipped more than 2000 force of PMPF (Puntland Marine Police Force)," said Mr. Gaas.
The leader urged the leaders of Gulf nation to rump up their training mission to avert threat Al-Shabab and ISIS terrorists.
"We expect that UAE will continue its support of this forces. without them (the forces), there will be security challenges in Puntland and will only help our enemies particularly Al-Shabab and ISIS. We asked our UAE to redouble its efforts and to help Somalia in the fight against terrorism," he said.
The sentiment comes hours after Somali government hinted the release of the 9.6 million saying it received a satisfactory response from the government of UAE barely a week after Somali officials the amount stashed in three unmarked bags.
In a statement, Somali Foreign ministry said Somali government will work hand-in-hand with UAE in the utilization of the funds.
"After lengthy deliberations between the two governments on the recent incident involving funds that were intercepted at Adan-Adde International Airport on 8th April 2018, the UAE has explained the purpose and the utilization of the funds," reads the statement "The Federal Government will work together with UAE on their utilization."
Somali Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Isa Awad who spoke to the media confirmed that talks between top leaders of the countries over the tensions but did not say when and where.